Nutritious and Delicious October

Our last post encouraged you to create a safety unit for your students. We hope this has left you hungry for more ideas – because we just so happen to have another one!

October is the perfect month for a nutrition unit. It’s Vegetarian Awareness Month; Eat Better, Eat Together Month; and even Spinach Lover’s Month. While it might be too difficult a task to turn all of your students into spinach lovers, October is a wonderful opportunity to encourage healthy eating habits to last a lifetime. Here are some ideas on how to introduce a little good nutrition into your classroom.

Plan a unit on healthy foods and eating habits. Start by asking students about their favorite foods. There are likely to be plenty of answers like these: pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, etc. Explain that while these foods are delicious (and, in parts, healthy), they are also unhealthy if eaten too often. Ask students to list healthy foods. Help them understand why these foods are important for growing bodies. Ask students to keep track of what they eat for one week. At the end of the week, have everyone write a short paper assessing how healthy their meals were; they should also include how they could eat healthier from then on. Fill the rest of the week with grade-appropriate nutrition topics. Bring in a delicious, healthy snack for each day to help your students eat better!

Here are some FREE activities you might want to use to reinforce your nutrition unit:

Grades 1-2 Healthy Snacks
Grades 3-4 Jellybean Sugar Count
Grades 5-6 Calories
Grades 6-8 Healthy Hidden Foods
Grades 9-12 Nutrition Sense

Plant your own classroom vegetable garden. This doesn’t have to be anything too fancy. If you live in a suitable climate and have a safe space, try planting outside. Many healthy foods (tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and other greens) can be grown indoors, as well. Students will love getting their hands dirty planting the seeds and watching the plants grow. This activity can easily complement a science unit. If all goes well, you could be eating classroom-grown salads and other snacks in no time!

Encourage other students in your school to eat better by putting together a healthy foods sale. Much like a bake sale (minus the brownies, cookies, and other sugary treats), the sale should offer a variety of healthy snacks. After securing permission for the sale, let students share their ideas for what to sell. You might want to provide some simple recipes or ideas to avoid a table full of carrots and bananas. Sell your healthy snacks during lunch, if possible; or before and after school. Use the proceeds to benefit a local charity – or to fund your classroom vegetable garden.

Have you had success transforming your children into spinach lovers? How do you teach students about nutrition? If you try any of the above ideas, please share your stories with us. It’s easy to make October all about nutrition – and to get your students eating healthy.

For more information on healthy foods and eating right, visit the United States Department of Agriculture web site. Interested in more activities that teach nutrition and healthy living? Check out these great books!

Make October Safety Month!

One of our goals with Bridging the Gaps in Education is to provide teachers and parents with educational ideas. After discussing this goal, we decided to try something new this week. We know you’re incredibly busy – why not let us help you plan some lessons – not for this week, but for next month? This way, you have time to develop the ideas and add your unique touches and improvements to them.

With this idea in mind, let’s get planning! October 4 – 10 is Fire Prevention Week. This is a great time to teach younger children about firefighters and all that they do for the community. It’s also an opportunity to present fire safety units to students of all ages. You might consider planning a field trip to your local fire station; or you could invite a local firefighter to speak to your class. Practice your home or school fire escape plans and encourage everyone to learn fire safety and prevention information. Top the week off with a surprise fire drill to reinforce what you’ve learned. Here is a simple fire safety activity to help you get started.

Why not try making the month of October Safety Month? Being relatively early in the school year, it’s a great time to establish classroom practices and rules – and it never hurts to make your space safer!

The concept of safety is pretty enormous, so here are a few ideas for units or lessons.

Work with your students to improve the safety of your classroom or home. First, ask students to identify potential risks in the environment – these could be sharp edges on desks or chairs, scissor storage, or slippery surfaces, to name a few. If there are valid risks, discuss ways to correct or improve them. Help students craft safety plans and enact them. Develop a classroom- or home-specific list of rules and precautions for the entire year.

Discuss safety outside the classroom. The world can be a dangerous place, and you can teach children to be better prepared. Possible topics include: traffic safety and laws, drug awareness, community threats (strangers, crime, etc.), and much more. Pick topics that apply to your grade level and region.

Teach about weather safety and natural disasters. Students are often fascinated by natural phenomena like thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes; and these topics naturally lead into science vocabulary, experiments, and activities. If you live in a region that is at risk of particular dangers, develop and practice safety procedures. Have students create and decorate safety lists to display in the classroom. A wealth of material is available for the planning and implementation of units/lessons like these. Click here for some products that focus on weather and natural disasters.

These ideas, along with your own expertise and planning, can turn October into Safety Month. These are only starter ideas; put your own spin on safety for a month filled with practical learning that can be applied in and out of the classroom. Have some ideas on teaching safety? Put them in the comments section below and share them with others!

One Week In...How's it Going?

I was shopping at a local school supply store the other morning, checking out all of the cool new products and supplies (there are still great deals to be had), when I realized that the room seemed quieter than normal. There were less people studying the shelves. This trend continued as I drove to work, windows down and radio off.

Has anybody else noticed how quiet things have gotten? With all of our children back in school, the world almost seems like a different place during the day. Playful shouts and full swimming pools have been swapped for ringing bells and packed classrooms.

The first week of school is always an exciting time. There’s so much important work to be done: teacher/student introductions, class rules and expectations, first lessons, and more. It’s a time to set the tone for the school year, an opportunity to establish an environment that will allow your class to grow and learn together. And, of course, it’s an extremely fun time!

We would really like to hear how your first weeks are going. How are you setting the right mood for the coming months? What activities have you used to get things going? Any insanely fun stories to share? Write your stories and ideas in the comments section below!